Hi everyone
Thought you might find this article interesting. Something to keep an ear
open for in the near future.
Hope everyone has a good weekend. My husband & I are going to NYC
to see our daughter for a few days. Will talk with you next week.
Take care
Diana
---------------------
Forwarded message:
From: mrudner@CCS.CARLETON.CA (Martin Rudner)
Sender: LUNG-ONC@LISTSERV.ACOR.ORG (LUNG-ONC: The Lung Cancer Online Support
Group)
Reply-to: LUNG-ONC@LISTSERV.ACOR.ORG (LUNG-ONC: The Lung Cancer Online
Support Group)
To: LUNG-ONC@LISTSERV.ACOR.ORG
Date: 97-10-30 08:30:36 EST
I thought this news item would be of interest to members of this group.
While the first phase testing will (apparently) be on colon cancer, this
approach is said to be also relevant to other adenocarcinimas, including
lung and ovarian cancers:
Reuters New Media
> Thursday October 30 6:43 AM EST
>
> Doctors Take Aim at Cancer With Magic Bullet
>
> LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists are close to testing a genetically
> engineered "magic bullet" that could treat half of the most common
> cancers, New Scientist magazine said Wednesday.
>
> Early laboratory tests have shown that the "bullets," which destroy
> the tumors by injecting them with a deadly toxin, were effective in
> treating adenocarcinomas which are found in lung, ovary, prostate,
> colon and breast cancers.
>
> Clinical trials with colon cancer sufferers could begin within the
> next 15 months.
>
> A magic bullet is a treatment that targets the cancerous cells without
> harming any of the healthy cells around them -- unlike chemotherapy
> which can harm healthy cells and result in serious side-effects.
>
> "Medical Targeting Recognition (MTR) Technologies, the Jerusalem-based
> company that developed the bullets, say that they might work better
> than other such treatments because their toxins actually penetrate
> cancer cells," the magazine said.
>
> Earlier attempts at the approach failed because although the
> antibodies on the bullets found the cancerous cells they could not
> penetrate and destroy them without harming healthy cells as well.
>
> MTR developed fusion proteins that isolate the dangerous cells and
> inject them with a bacterial toxin while leaving healthy cells alone.
>
> One half of the re-engineered protein binds to the receptor on
> adenocarcinoma cells and the second half fires a fatal dose of the
> toxin that kills them by preventing them from making proteins.
>
> "The Israelis modified the natural toxin so that immune cells
> previously exposed to the bacteria would not recognize and attack it,"
> the magazine explained.
>
> Seragen, a Massachusetts-based company, is using a similar approach
> against a rare form of leukemia called cutaneous T cell lymphoma.
>
> Its protein binds to a site on the cancer cells called interleukin-2
> growth factor receptor to fire the toxin. It is already close to
> completing clinical trails and is applying to the U.S. Food and Drug
> Administration for approval of the drug. ^REUTERS@
> _________________________________________________________________
>
> Earlier Related Stories
> * Doctors Take Aim at Cancer With Magic Bullet - Wed Oct 29 11:28 pm
> _________________________________________________________________
>
> ________________________ Search News Help
> _________________________________________________________________
>
> Previous Story: White House Accused of Hiding Diary, Tapes
> Next Story: Report: Nixon Wanted His Tapes Destroyed
> _________________________________________________________________
>
> [ Index | News | World | Biz | Tech | Politic | Sport | Scoreboard |
> Entertain | Health ]
> _________________________________________________________________
>
> Reuters Limited
>
>
> Questions or Comments
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Professor Martin Rudner, Ph.D.,
The Norman Paterson School of International Affairs,
Carleton University,
Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6
Canada
Phone: (613) 520-2600 X6659 FAX (613) 520-2889
Email address: mrudner@ccs.carleton.ca
----------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an automatically-generated notice. If you'd like to be removed
from the mailing list, please visit the Medicine-On-Line Discussion Forum
at <http://www.meds.com/con_faq.html>, or send an email message to:
majordomo@lists.meds.com
with the subject line blank and the body of the message containing the line:
unsubscribe mol-cancer your-email-address
where the phrase your-email-address is replaced with your actual email
address.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
